1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to running a car application, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for running a car application connected to a mobile device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cars generally support communication between various information and communication devices, such as car diagnostic devices, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), laptops, etc. and a car network. Cars may be connected to information and communication devices and an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) that makes up the car network using a communication protocol, such as Controller Area Network (CAN) (International Standardization Organization (ISO) 1158), Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1850, etc. Specifically, cars that include car gateways are directly connected to information and communication devices using the car gateways, or are connected to them via Ethernet switches, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), Access Points (APs), etc. in Peer to Peer (P2P) schemes.
Also, as various wireless communication schemes, such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wireless Broadband (WiBro, a type of mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX)), WLAN, Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Bluetooth communications, etc. have emerged, information and communication devices communicate with the car network using the various wireless communication schemes and attempt to provide integrated services based on car information obtained from the car network.
Accordingly, development has recently been under way on car software such as, for example, car applications that provide many different car-related services using car information obtained from the car network. For example, a technology has been developed to connect cars and mobile devices to enable drivers to use location information and voice navigation, make calls and send text messages, and listen to music and the like through a car application while driving.
To run a car application, the user has to first connect the mobile device and a head unit of the car via e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB) and then manipulate the mobile device to run the car application, causing some inconvenience to the user.
Thus, it would be more convenient if communication between a car and a mobile device is automatically established and a car application also runs automatically without user intervention.
Furthermore, since recent cars are equipped with functionality for wirelessly charging a mobile device, it would be much more convenient if a car application takes into account wireless charging of the mobile device while the application runs.